


Dreams start their drifting & you hear a lullaby

by cutebutpsyco



Series: Tony Stark Bingo 2019 Fills [3]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), IronStrange - Fandom, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Age Regression/De-Aging, Bruce Banner and Christine Palmer acting like parental figures, F/M, IronStrange Bingo 2019, Kid Fic, Kid Stephen Strange, Kid Tony Stark, M/M, Tony Stark Bingo 2019
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-07 05:12:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,457
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17954228
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cutebutpsyco/pseuds/cutebutpsyco
Summary: TONY STARK BINGO. FILL A4: KID FIC|| IRONSTRANGE BINGO FILL. DE-AGING ||“He’s not Stephen’s kid,” Wong said, allowing Bruce to think to something different. “He is Strange, and the shy boy over there is Stark.”





	Dreams start their drifting & you hear a lullaby

**Author's Note:**

> I think this is one of the most self-indulgent things I've ever written, but I had these prompts in both of my bingo cards and it kind of took form in my mind like this. I wrote this in something like four hours or so, and, seriously, I just wanted an excuse for Bruce and Christine to act like parents.  
> If you are wondering if Stephen in an Iron Man onesie was necessary, yes, he was. Also, brief mention-ish of Howard Stark's A+ parenting. Like, Tony is just scared and has nightmares, but it's just mentioned, really.  
> POV switches from Bruce to Christine and that's all. 
> 
> As always, not betad, and nothing belongs to me. Title from Lullaby by OneRepublic.

When Wong called him, telling him that he needed a doctor, a lot of questions crossed Bruce’s mind. First of all, the Sorcerer lived with a doctor, a man whose superhero name was ‘Doctor’, so, why don’t ask Strange himself?  
Then, Christine told him she was going back at the Sanctum because she and Stephen were working on something, so, if the Sorcerer Supreme wanted a second opinion, why didn’t he wait for his best friend? 

Bruce wasn’t that kind of doctor. Sure, he had a PhD in Medicine and could grasp more than the basis of it, but he never specialized and he practised just a few times. No, if Strange would have called someone for consulting, that person was Christine. At least if it wasn’t a matter of life or death and she was still on her shift. And Bruce knew she was. 

“Yeah, I’m at my place. If you portal me there is better,” He answered, looking at the sparkling portal which started to take form in front of his eyes. 

From the other side of it, Bruce could see the huge main room of the New York Sanctum. It was empty, but for Wong standing by the portal and the Cloak flowing mid-air in front of an armchair. If the relic was there, it meant Strange was around as well and that did nothing to calm down Bruce’s nerves. He stepped through the portal, letting his eyes ran on the rest of the room he couldn’t see from the other side of the gateway, trying to shush the voice in his brain which was telling him that something was off. 

He shook his head, focusing back on Wong. The librarian seemed always imperturbable, but the time they spent together after the Snap bought Bruce to a certain comprehension of the man, and he looked surprised, but not worried. Which was good. 

Bruce questioned him with his glance, just to receive a small smile back and a silent invitation to look around the room. And while that was good, Banner decided to follow the man advice. They had been work together to bring back half of the universe, and the doctor knew that in the very same room where he was a lot of weird shit happened; weird shits at which Bruce wouldn’t ever believe without seeing them. 

What he was looking at that moment, though, wasn’t as weird as the female version of himself he saw when Wong opened a portal to another dimension where Loki never accepted Thanos’s proposal (and the fact that female Bruce seemed to be very much in love with female Thor was even weirder because Christine couldn’t help but tease him every time the God of Thunder enter a room where Bruce was). No, what he found himself facing was a toddler around two years old with pitch black hair and green-steel blue eyes who was popping his head out from the Cloak grasping at it with grabby hands. 

“Who is he?” Bruce asked, looking at the toddler. “Does Stephen have a son? Does Tony know about him?” 

Wong smiled, looking at the man in front of him, looking almost smug. Though, the moment Bruce said 'Tony' another chubby face appeared from behind the Cloak. The first kid was struggling to get off the armchair, and the relic lifted him, helping the toddler on his tiny feet while it kept a metaphoric eye on the one who was still seated. 

Bruce had no doubt that the first kid was Stephen's kid, but looking at the fluffy brown hair and the smart whiskey coloured eyes of the second one was like looking at pictures of Tony was he was a baby and dressed like Captain America for Halloween. The fact that Banner knew the reason behind his choice had always made the doctor sad. 

“He’s not Stephen’s kid,” Wong said, allowing Bruce to think to something different. “He is Strange, and the shy boy over there is Stark.”

Bruce wanted to say that the last adjective he would have picked for describing Tony was ‘shy’, but the kid was currently trying to disappear again in the red fabric of the Cloak while keeping his curious eyes on Stephen who was now in front of Bruce. 

The man kneeled so that he could look at the baby doctor in the eyes, desperately wishing for Christine’s shift to end soon. He had never been good with kids. He helped tons of them, of course, especially in the immediate aftermath of his exposure to gamma rays, but taking care of them every day wasn’t anywhere near his field of expertise. 

Somehow, Stephen moved so that he was currently hiding (or would hide if he wasn’t tiny) Tony from Bruce’s sight. Banner sighed and looked at Wong. “Ok, that’s definitely Strange: Tony is just a little uncomfortable and he’s protecting him. Now, why are they two years old?”

“Two half!” Stephen decided was a good idea to inform Bruce about his correct age. 

“This makes so much more sense,” Bruce couldn’t help but voice his irony. It was something that he wasn’t really good to keep under control, even if he got better with years, and spending a lot of time with Tony wasn’t the best way to put it at bay. He decided to ignore the mini sorcerer and went back on the real size one. 

“I don’t know,” He admitted. “Stephen was studying some new spell, but he usually studies a lot of them at the same time and Stark loves to read random things, so I’ll need more time to understand which one did this and find a counterspell. Hopefully, this isn’t the doing of the Time Stone, or it’d been extremely more complicated.”

Bruce didn’t understand why, considering that the aim of the thing was to control Time, but thinking twice about that he decided it was better not to know the answer to that specific question. “Can the counterspell hurt them?” 

“No,” Wong replied, immediately. That was, at least, something. What Bruce still didn’t know was why Wong called him out of all the people. Maybe the librarian knew him better than how he knew Rhodey and but for Stephen, they were the only persons Tony trusted, but still, it didn’t make sense. “But I can’t find it if I have to take care of two toddlers and a Cloak. And, anyway, Stephen wants you to hold him.” 

Bruce looked back at the kid in front of him, his multi-coloured eyes were fixed on Banner’s hands while the man focused his attention back on him. They were friends, Stephen being the person who introduced Christine to him and trusted him with his best friend, but they had never been so close. “Are you sure?” 

“Yes,” He half yelled, before pointing with the hand which wasn’t grasping at Bruce’s t-shirt toward Tony, still hidden behind the Cloak. “Tony scary.” 

And yes, it didn’t take 7 PhDs to understand what Strange just said. Typical of the man he had known: Stephen just cared so much about Tony that it was a pleasure to hear him when he spoke about his boyfriend. Apparently, that was a dote that he decided to bring in his travel back to children age. Bruce balanced him on his hip before approaching the Cloak which was moving softly, revealing again Tony’s face.

“Do they…?” Bruce asked the moment the question crossed his mind, just to be cut short by Wong’s reply. 

“They care about each other. When I came in and seen them, I was angry as fuck with Stephen and Stark took his hand,” Wong said, and it was clear that there was something that worried him in the deep of his dark eyes. “I don’t even know if they remember anything about their adult lives. And I thought to ask them wasn’t the best way around.”

Bruce nodded. He didn’t know so much about Strange but for the main facts, the outstanding career in neurosurgery, the crash and the man in the Cloak that helped him out from the hole the Hulk created in his house. They used to speak a lot, mostly about science and small talks, despite the fact that both men hated them usually, and they were in their good way to friendship. But they weren’t there yet and Banner couldn’t tell what kind of threats the Sorcerer found himself facing. 

For Tony, though, it was different. Bruce knew all the demons in his friend’s mind and really hoped the cute boy who was hiding behind the red fabric couldn’t keep any memory of his past. The fact that seemed to be scared, wasn’t so promising. The doctor moved closer to the Cloak which swung by one side when Stephen stretched on it from his place between Bruce’s arms. It seemed that the relic was still following Strange’s orders, which was good. 

The moment the Cloak moved, though, Tony’s eyes were filled with tears and the boy tried to catch the fabric back. “Cloakie…” He whispered, and the sound of his voice broke Bruce’s heart while the kid rose his eyes on the man in front of him. “‘Tepen?” Tony called, his voice even smaller. 

That was enough for Stephen to softly kick on Bruce’s hip. The man lowered the kid so that he was seating by Tony’s side. The moment he did it, Tony wiped his tears away from his eyes and shot a soft smile to Strange before going back to look at Bruce. Now he seemed to be much more relaxed. “You no daddy.”

Bruce hated that. Hated the fact that Tony calmed down when he realized he wasn’t Howard Stark. He hated his friend’s father and hated himself because he never listened to him the few times Stark tried to open up with him. The doctor smiled, daring to lower a hand in Stark’s fluffy hair. “No, kid, I’m not your dad. I’m Bruce.”

“I am Tony, he Tepen!” The small genius declared, happily, and Bruce couldn’t help a smile to form on his lips before he turned to look Wong. 

“They don’t seem to remember about us,” The sorcerer said. “I’m positive that they don’t remember what happened to them either, but I thought you could check on them.”

“Yes, sure. I’ll need to bring them back to the Compound, I think. And I think it’s for the best if we keep this as silent as possible,” The last thing the world needed to know was that Tony Stark was a toddler. He could fill up in the meeting with Ross, even if he wasn’t so eager to do it, and they can just hope to Avengers missions required for one of them to show up. 

At that moment, the door of the Sanctum opened by itself and in a couple of seconds, the sound of heels against the wooden floor reached the main hall. If the door opened by itself, they could take a hot guess about who the person who entered the house was. The fact that they were wearing heels cut down the number to one.

Christine entered the room with a bag of take-away Thai in one hand and a surprised expression in her eyes. Her hair was held away from her face in a high bun, and she dropped her handbag and the foo one the moment she saw the scene in front of her.  
Her boyfriend was kneeling in front of an armchair taken by two toddlers, and Wong was staring at the scene. 

“Bruce?” She called, and surprise was clear in her voice. Both Wong and the doctor turned toward her but what surprised the doctor was a happy little yell coming from one of the toddlers. He pushed his tiny body down from the armchair while the Cloak flew on his shoulders and walked toward her. “Hi, pretty boy, what’s your name?”

She looked at the absolutely cute kid and just when he rose his eyes on her dread filled the woman. She knew those eyes, and she knew that the specific combination of those colours in that very same scheme meant that they could belong just to one person. Who was three years older than she was and definitely not cute. Handsome and hot were adjectives she would have used, but not cute. Unaware of the entire mental process going on in Christine’s mind, the kid answered immediately: “Stephen, I’m two half.”

“And this seems to be super important for him,” Wong replied, and he was having a hard time to hide his smile. 

“Yeah, I guessed,” She said, before going back to look at Stephen. “You’re a big boy, aren’t you?”

“Yes! Tony three.”

And Christine rose her eyes from Stephen to look at the kid who was hiding in Bruce’s arms. Banner turned his eyes to look at Christine again, slowly lifting himself and the kid from the armchair. Tony sunk his head in the crotch of Bruce’s neck. The glance in Christine’s eyes was enough of a question. “Yes, this is small Tony. And is much more silent than adult Tony is.”

“Can we keep them like this?” Christine jocked, and the fact that she wasn’t asking anything about how they were in that state said a lot about her previous encounters with magic. Stephen seemed to be all clingy with her and Bruce couldn’t help but think that she looked at ease while scooping the kid on her arms. 

A wave of guilt hit Banner. Since the gamma rays exposure, he has given up on the idea of having children on his own. It wasn’t something so hard to, considering that after Beth he had never been in the position of having to take care about relationships. This until he met Christine. She was smart, intelligent and beautiful. And seeing her holding a kid was the sweetest sight that ever caught Bruce’s eyes. 

“She pretty,” Tony said, in a whisper, his eyes fixed on the woman that was speaking with Wong, while the man was repeating to her what happened to the two geniuses. Banner looked at the smile on Tony’s lips and there was something of the Tony he met in that glance. The man smiled. 

“Oh, yes, she really is,” He had to agree. “Now, I think it’s better if we bring the kids back to the Compound. I wanted to be sure that they are fine, and I was hoping Friday could scan them without being too invasive.” 

“I was thinking about bringing them to my place. Is the less likely to blow up place I know and can be kid-proven more easily than the Compound or the Tower, or here.” 

At that, Wong started to open a portal, probably for the med bay of the Compound, when a thought crossed Bruce’s mind. He couldn’t be sure, but he didn’t really trust about let two kids walk through a portal. And Tony’s body had tightened in his grip as if he wanted to prove the doctor’s point. “I’m not sure magic is the best way to travel for kids. And, anyway, Tony doesn’t seem comfortable with it.”

“We can take the underground,” Christine replied, receiving a questioning glance from Bruce. “I don’t know if they remember, but if Tony doesn’t want to walk through a portal, I guess Stephen could freak out if we call for a taxi.”

As a clue, the baby sorcerer’s body went completely lump at the mention and his chubby hands tightened around Christine’s neck, the smile that had been on his lips since that moment completely gone. “It’s fine, cutie,” Christine said to him, her nose disappearing between Stephen’s hair as if she was telling him a secret. “We are going to take the underground, is it cool with you?” 

Stephen rose his eyes from Christine’s shoulder, looking at her and nodding, not completely sure, but, at least, not as terrified as he seemed to be before. 

“Underground cool,” Tony said, nodding toward Stephen. Bruce smiled. Maybe they were trapped in children bodies, but the kid in his arms was still one of his best friends, trying to make feel comfortable the people he cared about and to help them. 

It took the group some moments to organize and force the Cloak to turn into a scarf that flew around Christine’s neck, but, in the end, they managed to reach the door of the Sanctum. 

“I’ll have someone looking at those spells in Kamar-Taj, but I think I’ll stay there to guard the Sanctum until Strange is back in his annoying tall body,” Wong said, before waving his goodbyes to the kids muttering something about geniuses who couldn’t keep their noses out of things they shouldn’t look into. Bruce couldn’t help a small smile at that, but then he let his free hand slip in Christine’s and for a moment the fact that they were babysitting two turned-into-kids-men didn’t matter any longer. 

What neither of them thought about was that Bruce was, indeed, a public figure, and seeing him and his girlfriend on the underground with two toddlers brought up a lot of questions, and that Tony had Google alerts on every Avenger that popped up in the Compound every time they were on some blog. The moment they reached the Avengers Headquarters, the holo-screen in the common room was filled with pictures of them. And Natasha was looking at the couple with a smug smile on her lips. 

“Oh my god, they aren’t Photoshopped,” She said, when she saw the kids. Stephen was asleep while on the train, while Tony was happily blabbing about a nice lady who asked Bruce for a pic. “How long did you planned to keep them secret, Bruce?”

“That’s not what you think,” Christine said, trying to walk her way through the med bay without other Avenger seeing them. Nat rose her eyes from Tony, totally fixed on her hair, and there was a questioning light in those. Bruce didn’t hope to keep it secret to his team-mates for long, though he hoped to have enough time to come up with an explanation. “They are kids, but neither our kids or real kids. They are Tony and Stephen.”

Bruce could exactly see the moment when Nat’s brain went ‘error 404’ even if it was just the time of beating her eyes. Her mouth was half opened in surprise and she blinked a couple of time before running a hand in her hair. “Do you mean these kids are theirs, or that they are the kids?”

“The second one,” Bruce said, deciding a moment later it was better to explain to her what was going on, at least what he knew. “A spell went wrong, probably, and they are stuck in toddlers’ bodies. We wanted to see if they are fine and then bring them to Christine’s. It’s safer.”

“And you didn’t think about the fact that going around with your girlfriend and two kids would have brought to this?” She looked again at the screen where new articles were popping up. And he tried not to think, again, that they were cute. 

“Tony doesn’t like portals, and Stephen can enter a car without a massive panic attack when he’s an adult, we didn’t want to trigger either of the kids,” Christine explained. “We can tell they are my brother’s kids, and he’s in New York and asked me to take care of them for a while. But now I’d prefer to check them, now, and take care of this later.”

Natasha nodded, closing all the information on the holo-screen. They had no idea how they were going to tell this to the others, but the fact that they didn’t even know about what really happened didn’t make things easier. 

\--

The problem, with Tony and Stephen, was that they were two genius kids. Bruce wasn’t the kind of person who thought about being a father, ever, and he had never had a lot to do with children in the first place, but he was sure that babysitting every other toddler was way easier than do it with the pair that was playing in Christine’s living room. 

Tony managed to disassemble the kids’ game with which was playing a moment before and now was all interested in try to understand the simple circuit that allowed to it to blink and sound every time it was shaken. He was silent, all focused on his task, while Stephen was seated by his side, looking up at him while his eyes were following the simple words on one of the books. Bruce didn’t even ask how could he be able to read some of those, but apparently, he could, making up his own story. 

“It’s weird, isn’t it?” Christine asked him, seated by his side with two mugs filled with coffee. “I babysat him during all the years we worked together, and now, here he is, an actual baby.”

“Believe me, I know the feeling,” Bruce chuckled, wrapping an arm around the woman’s shoulders. Christine’s eyes were still on their two mini-friends when her StarkPad beeped. “Is this another Google alert on us?”

“No, apparently the public opinion believes they are my nephews. These are the results of the subconscious stimulation I ran on them back at the Compound. Apparently, they don’t have memories of their adulthood, but their reactions to both magic and cars bring me to believe that lingering memories from their past traumas are still there.” 

Bruce bent over her shoulder, looking at the screen and rapidly double checking the data there were flashing on it. He was still looking at the number and schemes while Christine reached the kids, seating by Stephen’s side. At that, Tony let himself fall on her lap, his tongue still trapped between his teeth and whiskey brown eyes turned amber under the soft light of the sunset fixed on his task of putting the game back together. 

“I’d like to take a picture, Dr Banner,” Friday’s message took the place of the data Bruce was scrolling through and that was enough for the man to look at the scene in front of him after having authorized the AI. That seemed to be the clue for the Cloak to fly in the living room and join them. They stayed like that for live five minutes more before Christine decided it was good time to eat something, though, by the time they managed to have both Tony and Stephen seated another thirty minutes had passed. 

At the end of the day or sleepy time, as Tony had gracefully yelled while curling up in Christine’s bed, the adults were exhausted. 

“We’ll need beds for them if Wong doesn’t figure out how to turn them adult back soon,” Christine said, they both were on the couch, Cloakie wrapped around their shoulders. “And I don’t even know how I’ll do tomorrow.”

“I can stay with them. We need to speak about this with the Avengers, but it’s not a problem for me,” Bruce smiled, placing a kiss against the tip of Christine’s nose. “I’m sorry,” He said, a moment later, receiving a questioning glance for the woman. “I can’t give you this. Kids, a happy life.”

“Bruce,” Christine whispered. “Do I find them cute? Yes. Do I see myself with children anytime in the future? No, I’m not suited for this. I’m here telling you I can’t wait for they go back to me insufferable narcissistic idiots,” She smiled, punching his shoulder playfully. “Well, no, actually, I’d like them to stay like this, but just because they are insufferable narcissistic idiots. What I mean is that you don’t have to be sorry. I never thought about having kids, and I won’t love you less because you don’t want them.” 

“I love you, too,” He said, pushing his lips against his girlfriend. Cloakie, reactive as always, wrapped around them more tightly while Christine opened her lips, letting Bruce kiss her properly. Just to be interrupted a moment later by someone crying in the other room. 

They both stood up, half running through the hallway toward the bedroom. There, Tony was wailing, is little hands wrapped around the duvet, eyes shouted open and breathe short. Christine’s heart broke a little bit more when she saw Stephen at his side, light eyes glossy with tears and seated on the mattress, looking at the other kid. The Cloak place itself around its owner small shoulders while Christine took Tony in her arms.

“Tony,” She whispered, using the tips of her fingers to move away locks of fluffy hair from his eyes. He didn’t seem to calm down, but, at least, his eyes focused back on the doctor. “Hey, hi pretty boy.” 

“I don’t want to break it,” He said, and at every word, it was clear that the kid was short of breath. Christine started to trace soft circles on his back. On her bed, Bruce was holding Stephen’s hands while the other kid seemed to follow her with his magnetic eyes. “Daddy I don’t want to…”

Christine wiped his eyes clean and shared a concerned look with Banner. From the man’s sad eyes, it was clear that there was something underneath. Christine had never known anything about Howard Stark, and while Tony was her friend she knew he wasn’t the kind of person who opened up with the others, but it was clear that Bruce knew it. “You didn’t break anything, cutie.”

“No?” He asked and sounded surprised by Christine’s words. 

She smiled and shook her head, bouncing the kid against her side. “You are a super good baby boy, do you know that, right?” 

“Me super?” Tony asked his arms around Christine’s neck. And if Bruce took a picture Christine didn’t have to know. She chuckled at the toddler’s question and seated near Bruce and Stephen. 

“Yes Tony, you are a superhero, the greatest of them,” Bruce’s answer came follower by Stephen’s question which let the two adults fight another burst of laughter. 

“More than Spider-Man?” 

“Dr Palmer, Dr Banner,” Friday’s voice came from the StarkPad they left in the room as baby-monitor. “I think we should send this to Peter Parker; he’d love it.”

Christine smiled. “Yes, sent it to him. But only after we explained to the Avengers what happened to them.” 

By the time Tony was completely calmed down, though, it was clear that neither of the kid was going back to sleep and anyway it was almost morning and a good time for them to reach again Wong and try to understand if he found something. Which left Christine and Bruce with the problem of not having kids’ clothes. 

“I’d say, let’s go shopping and then I’ll leave you with Bruce, ok?” She asked, and Tony slapped his chubby hand against her cheek. 

“Brucie!” He said, happily, making the man laugh. 

“And I thought I was safe from this nickname for a while, well, up, let’s go!” The doctor said, carefully moving Stephen from his legs and letting him fall back on the bed before getting ready himself to head out. He used the StarkPad to call the other Avengers to the Compound in a couple of hours and checked for every new notification from Wong. He didn’t hope to receive any, but the sight was still disappointing. 

\--

Peter kidnapped the kids the exact moment Bruce finished to explain to the heroes what happened with the two idiot geniuses, and Banner found himself questioning if it was still a good idea send him the video in which Stephen pretty much admitted he considered Spider-Man the best superhero in town. 

In that moment, the teenager was bouncing Strange on his legs while Tony was trying to climb the younger superhero’s back, mimicking the same gesture he made to launch his spider webs. “Oh, who is the Spider-Kid, now?” He asked, and the Cloak flipped him over Peter’s shoulder, letting him floating softly toward the soft couch. 

“Spider-Man, not kid,” He said, and Bruce, who had come to know the entire Civil War story couldn’t help thinking that it must have been karma. 

“Yeah, sure, whatever. I still prefer Stephen!” Tony stuck his tongue out, and Bruce decided to let the kids with Peter was safe enough. Not that he had doubts about his abilities, but he wasn’t sure those extended also to a couple of hyperactive toddlers that seemed to love and appreciate him as much as they did in their adults' bodies. “Do you think Wong will find a way to bring them back, Dr Banner?”

Peter helped the two kids climbing down the coach under the watchful glance of the Cloak that followed them toward a tea table in the middle of the living room. 

“Yes, eventually. In the meanwhile, all we can do is keep them happy. I fear Tony has memories from his childhood. I mean, I don’t know how Stephen’s had been, but with the only exception of cars he seems doing great,” Bruce didn’t even know if it was for the best to tell Peter these things, though he knew that his friends trusted the young Parker and he could keep a secret if this secret wasn’t him being Spider-Man. “Tony, on the other hand. He had nightmares from his father, and he’s generally scared by the idea of Howard showing up.”

Peter nodded, gravely, and he seemed way older than the nineteen-years-old kid he was. “We can do that! It’s clear that they trust you and Dr Palmer, and they seem to like Mrs Romanoff and me enough. Captain Rogers didn’t scare Tony so, maybe, he doesn’t remember that.”

Bruce noticed that as well as he noticed that Stephen moved slightly to cover Tony when Steve approached. It made sense. Maybe they didn’t remember about being together, but it was clear that the toddlers were very close. The reaction at Steve wasn’t anything unexpected either. Stephen helped Tony and the Captain during their reconciliation, but the genius didn’t like to be left alone with the super soldier. It was normal for Strange to try and protect him. 

“I don’t think he remembers…” And whatever he was going to say was silenced a moment later by DUM-E’s happy beeping followed by Tony and Stephen’s yelling. 

\--

It took to Wong a week to find the spell and it hadn’t been an easy week for Bruce and Christine, though, in the end, they fell into a routine which included being woke up by Tony’s nightmare just to find a very concerned and awake Stephen as well and, at the end of the week, both Bruce and Christine had an entire album filled with pictures of their significant other holding the kids or the two toddlers in the cutest situations.  
The excuse they used with everyone else was that once they became adults again Tony and Stephen weren’t going to believe them without proves, but the truth was that they were too cute for words. 

And, maybe, Bruce holding both the kids with ice-cream everywhere on their faces was now Christine’s lock screen picture. They were getting ready for the sleepy time when a portal opened in the middle of Dr Palmer’s apartment and Wong walked through it receiving an enthusiast greeting from both Cloakie and Stephen already in his Iron Man onesie. Christine hoped the spell could enlarge the thing too (and considering that the clothes they were wearing when they de-aged themselves had the same destiny she was positive on that.).

“I find it,” Wong said. “Of course, they used a very powerful spell, and the counterspell was in a forgotten book in the deeps of Kamar-Taj, but we tested it so it’s about time for these big boys to grow up.” And from the glimpse that lighted his eyes when Wong said he tested the spell, Christine understood she didn’t want to be on the librarian’s bad side. 

And, maybe, Stephen’s face, when he found himself wearing an Iron Man PJs in the middle of Christine’s bathroom was the funniest thing ever, if not for Tony’s smug smile the moment he saw what his boyfriend was wearing - and Bruce who was holding a pack of baby powder in his vague direction - . 

Bruce was the first to gain back the use for words: “Do you remember something of the last week?” He asked, looking at the couple in front of him. 

Stephen’s arm wrapped around Tony’s waist before he flashed a wicked smile to the couple in front of them. “I know you both swore off kids, but you’d make great parents.” 

“Yeah,” Tony replied. “Trust the hot man in an Iron Man onesie.”

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are the air I breathe and the reason why I write, so make ur girl happy.
> 
>  **wanna say 'hi'? do you have a prompt for me?** find me on [tumblr](https://ironstrange-is-the-endgame.tumblr.com/).  
> find my entire bingo cards on dreamwidth ([TonyStark](https://myrcellabaratheon.dreamwidth.org/3109.html) and [Ironstrange](https://myrcellabaratheon.dreamwidth.org/3827.html)) and pillowfort ([TonyStark](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/481274) and [Ironstrange](https://www.pillowfort.io/posts/511160)).


End file.
